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So I looked at my cluster water temp last night on my way home (10 min hwy drive) and noticed it creeping over the "perfect half way" point that I'm used to seeing. I could get it back to normal-ish when coasting at red lights and blowing hot air on full-- although it's hard to tell with those stupid gauges with no stupid markings on them.

Checked my coolant (hot) at home and was full, rechecked this morning (cold) and put maybe 50ml of water in and it was full :s

My motors also been...consuming oil for a while, which AFAIK is pretty normal for m54s.... Except that I put 2 litres in it after not checking it for maybe 3 weeks. While topping up the oil last night I noticed a load of residue on the underside of my oil cap that appeared to be coolant. As far as I can tell there's no oil in the coolant but ill have to check later to be sure.

Sooooo-- head gasket? boo... So much oil in the coolant passages they've clogged? :s

I wouldn't be as depressed about this except that due to the number of times my cars been smashed, it's not worth dirt now and if the HG job is $$$, it may be worth it to just move on to my next car *tear

crud under the cap usually means a problem with the pcv system. often due to dirty trips.
high coolant temps could be a bad thermostat or water pump. have you checked those?
that is quite a bit of oil to be burning.

I agree with the above, a few other things to look at first but 2L in 3 weeks, high side my frined.

If you find a mixing and believe it is a head gasket, you mine as well just swap the motor. These heads are not forgiving and when looking at pricing, if it is truly blown a gasket due to over heating and the head warped, youre screwed. Now since you are not showing any other signs like smoke, excessive over heating etc it is possibly not the case at all.

You have to dig a little deeper here, if you cannot get to a shop to solve the issue or look into it...syphon your reservoir coolant into a clear plastic bottle, if the mixing is bad enough you will clearly see oil in it.

You can have the basics touched on first, flush the rad, look at hoses, fix the oil leak that may exist somewhere else and so on but its all $$$$... is the car really that bad of shape youd just dump it?

You hit my concern on the head, that I may as well re/re motor if anything substantial was wrong. I know I may be jumping to conclusions and such... I was just preparing for the worst.

Buuuutttt -- as much as the motor may have issues, it doesn't stop there. The body specifically front end isn't in great shape... So much that I would value Ye potential sale value of the car at under 5-6k with full disclosure and the accident history.

With that valuation, is a new motor really gonna be cost-effective? Even smaller just doing the HG? Plus after all that in the next year or two I predict the front end will need to be re-sprayed, which means ill probably want to do the whole car...

We have done about 4 e46 engine swaps, 2 e39's and 1 X3 (essentially e46 xi motor) the last year or two related directly to over heating (some people just keep driving!) and you would be looking at roughly $4k for the entire motor swap, parts, labour and taxes. We have bought 3 or so of those motors from Eurostyle (Phil) and been very happy.

All depends what mileage motor you find as it can make a $XXX difference and any further $$$ work that would be needed or desired as preventative main. while it was out and easy to do like oil housing gasket, ccv etc.

For the money it may not be a bad move IF needed but heres hoping it is something easier to fix and cheaper, all the best.